Monday December 8, 2014

I had a really good nights sleep and woke up feeling much better. Ready for the hills that I knew we were going to climb today. I was hoping for a good road, and climbing the first half of the ride and downhill for the second half of the ride.

That is almost how it worked out. The first 10 kms were through the valley out of Baracoa and then we started to climb. The road sign indicated 30 kms winding uphill roads. That is precisely what it was. Once we had hit the high of 551 metres, we started to descend, fairly gradually for the next 15 kms and our final 10 kms were along the coastal road with a slight tail wind.

We are back on the Central Carrereta and was expecting it to be as good or as bad as we have experienced before. It was an excellent road until the last 10 kms even then it was only a little rough in places. We are now on the southern coast of Cuba and should have tail winds all the way to Havana! (lol)

The scenery was stunning today. We stopped several times to take photos and almost every time there were people waiting to sell us stuff, bananas, mandarins, cones of guava and coconut. We stopped at one stop where the buses stop at the top of the hill and at view pointwhere there was a little café. Ralf and I both needed a cold drink but all they had was beer and of course rum, no pop or cold water.

Today we were often asked for soap, pens and cream,I was asked if I had any lipstick. The only thing that would pass for lipstick is my lip-balm with SPF15, I don’t even have any mascara.

At one very picturesque stop Ralf was taking photos and I was surrounded by people offering me coffee, coco, chocolate, mandarins, etc. I really wanted some mandarins, but they were in long bunches, I explained that my bike was very heavy and I couldn’t carry anything else. One fella hooked the mandarins onto my handle bars like strings of onions. I said I only needed four, miraculously he appeared with a smaller string of mandarins and we bought them for 1 peso.

It was a great ride today, very hilly -999 metres up – 959 down, but beautiful scenery.

Our casa host this morning had told us there wasn’t any casas in Imias, but there were two camp sites – one before Imias and one after. We passed the turn-off for the campsite before Imias and carried on to Imias. We stopped at the bus terminal and asked if there were any casa particulars, the answer was no, but maybe Ronaldo had a room to rent. Ronaldo did have a room to rent, which he is hoping to turn into a casa particular. It is very basic, but we had a lovely meal and a chat with him about his dreams for the casa. The only problem is that he has to do everything in small bits. When the supplies are available, and when he gets more money that is when he can do the next thing.

He has a son that is going to University next year to be a doctor. “Thanks to god and Fidel I don’t have to pay for his education”. He didn’t want to talk politics, but we agreed that a little of both systems (socialism and capitalism) would work better for everyone.